In marketing terms, Adidas did more jumping than anyone. It signed stars like Bad Bunny and Timothée Chalamet for a six-minute ad, dressed 14 national teams in Adidas attire, and even supplied the official “Trionda” ball.

And while its Q2 numbers looked good at first blush (net sales grew by 14%), its footwear revenue grew by just 1% and its profit fell short of analyst estimates—not good when marketing spending was 30% higher than last year.

Wall Street threw down the yellow card: Adidas’ stock fell 19% on the news. 

The plummet surprised CEO Bjørn Gulde, who regarded the FIFA partnership as a long-term investment in visibility. “I see the share price and I don’t know what the misunderstanding is,” he said.

The Penalty Shot

It’s harder to gauge the postgame vibe over at Verizon and American Airlines, because their earnings calls contained no mentions of FIFA or the World Cup at all.

Verizon’s revenues from mobility and broadband were up by 2.8%, to $23.4 billion, and CEO Dan Schulman cited a “combination [of] higher quality net adds, better volumes, lower churn, and lower unit cost economics.”

Similarly, while American Airlines’s revenues grew 16.3% year over year to $16.7 billion, chief commercial officer Nat Pieper chalked it up to “executing our four-pillar strategy.”

Those pillars included improving customer experience and growing the global network—but not writing a check to FIFA.

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